This blog began as a writing and literature blog with the occasional Op-Ed piece on current events & issues. The political writing has, slowly but surely, taken this blog over. Readers will still be treated to some of my thoughts on pop culture and sports, but, for the most part, Blogito Ergo Sum will feature my opinions on the state of our union and world.

Pages

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Where Did The Boxing Fans Go?

-
Being a child of the 70s, I grew up during one of the golden ages of boxing. Yes, there have always been boxing fans who could spout round by round stats of the Max Bear vs. James Braddock fight. Boxing will ALWAYS have those fans.

Beyond that though, boxing held a healthy presence within mainstream pop culture. Fight results were on the evening news, and were discussed around the water cooler. Plus, any Jane or Joe could tell you who "the champ" was.
-
In 1971, Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier both had justifiable claims to the World Heavyweight Championship Title. An undefeated Ali had won the title from Sonny Liston

Title: Muhammad Ali during a Boxing Match in Washington | This image was taken from Flickr's The Commons. The uploading organization may have various reasons for determining that no known copyright restrictions exist.

in Miami Beach in 1964. Ali successfully defended his belt up until he had the title stripped from him, for dodging the Viet Nam draft, for spiritual reasons, in 1967.

During Ali's incarceration, the undefeated Frazier won two championship titles by knocking out Buster Mathis and Jimmy Ellis.

Once Ali gained his freedom, he challenged Frazier, who was now recognized by boxing authorities as the World's Champion.

The fight was an event. New Yorkers protested ticket prices which ranged from $20 for a balcony seat to $150 for ringside. Celebrities such as Lorne Greene and Burt Lancaster donned formal attire to attend the fight. Locations across the U.S. and Canada screened the fight on closed circuit television to fans paying $5 to $15.

As I said, the bout was more than a boxing match, it was an event. People cared about the outcome, it was what was happening at the moment. Three years later, the world was captivated again by Ali's & Foreman's Rumble In The Jungle.
-
Today's bouts aren't awarded the same level of fanfare. Sure, hardcore fans keep boxing alive on TV and keep Pay-Per-Views profitable for HBO & Showtime. However, boxing isn't the water cooler topic it once was, and boxers are no longer house hold names. I can't even remember the last time I saw a boxing result being reported on the evening news.

In Rocky III, Mickey told Rocky, "...the worst thing happened to you, that could happen to any fighter. You got civilized." One might argue that the mainstream populace, "got civilized," and have outgrown violence as entertainment.

To that, I say, "poppy cock!" If we'd outgrown violence, MMA & WWE, which is a faux sport at best, wouldn't be as popular as they are. No, I think the reason for the decline in popularity may lie in the fact that championship fights are too common.

In the old days, there were eight weight classes...,

Flyweight: 8 st (50,802 Kg / 112 lbs)

Bantamweight: 8 st 6 lbs (53,525 kg / 118 lbs)

Featherweight: 9 st (57,153 kg / 126 lbs)

Lightweight: 9 st 9 lbs (61,235 kg / 135 lbs)

Welterweight: 10½ st (66,678 kg / 147 lbs)

Middleweight: 11 st 6 lbs (72,574 kg / 160 lbs)

Light Heavyweight: 12½ st (79,378 kg / 175 lbs)

Heavyweight: (unlimited)

...and one champion per weight class. Today we have multiple weight classes, some with more than one name, and different sanctioning bodies recognize different champions for each weight class. Below are listed the weight classes' main champions for the three top sanctioning bodies.

I say, "main champions," since many weight classes now have interim belts, which have bizarrely been made permanent. This, coupled with the fact I didn't even have room to list the WBO's title holders, means viewers can watch a "title fight" almost every week. The commonality of such fights have removed them from the realm of the special event, and plopped them into the realm of the mundane common occurrence.

Equally problematic is the fact that such bouts aren't hard for fighters to get. In the old days, fighters had to have forty to sixty wins, against mostly top ranked opponents, before the were even offered a shot at a title. Today, Boxers with less than twenty professional fights under their belts, have been given title shots and hold titles.

Additionally, we have famous champions such as heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (61-3) and super welterweight/welterweight champion (even though it's technically illegal to be champion of two weights at the same time) Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0) who fight like slow plodding robots and are boring to watch.

The results of these factors are a plethora of title fights, in name only, featuring participants the average viewer can't get behind as a hero, the way they got behind Joe Louis, James Braddock, and Muhammad Ali.

The sad part is, there ARE hero caliber fighters out there who could rally the masses. Gennady Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez, and Arthur Abraham are action fighters who are very entertaining to watch. The problem is that only hard core boxing fan know about these fighters. Their promoters aren't reaching the average Joe and creating hype among the masses.

Bottom line, boxing won't work itself back into the mainstream until it can furnish fans with a single dynamic champion, whom the masses can root for with a fervor.
-Championship chart prints as page 3, at 80% magnification, for your files or bulletin board.
-

Blast From The Past

Page Views

To Support This Blog...

About James

-At heart, I'm first & foremost a writer. I'm also an avid reader and food enthusiast. Today, I spend the majority of my time at my computer blogging, researching possible stories, and writing fiction.

I try to read a variety of books, even though the mystery genre is my favorite to both read and write. My favorite writers include Robert B. Parker, Anthony Bourdain, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Garrison Keillor, Paul Auster, and Willa Cather.

Like I said, I'm a food enthusiast. While I like & appreciate good food, pretty much across the gastronomic board, I have special interests in cheese, wine, and beer. That being said, there's little I won’t try, and little which I'll reject once I've tried it, as long as it's prepared well. Whether it's foreign cuisine, pickled pig's feet, bone marrow on toast, calamari, or simply anchovies on pizza, I'm game for pretty much anything.